“Excuse me?” He’s searching my face now. “You’re crying, and when I ask you why, you bring up my muscles?”
“It’s a good distraction.”
“Scarlett.” His tone is low and commanding, his coach voice. “What happened? Who did this to you?”
“Nothing. Nobody.” I shake my head. I can’t tell him what Taylor said without reinforcing to him all the reasons I don’t belong here with him.
“Don’t do that.” He reaches out to touch my face, brushing his hand over my tear-streaked cheek. “Don’t shut me out. Please.”
I wish I could say that his assertive manner didn’t do things to me. But it knocks down all the walls protecting my heart.
I wince, knowing I’m about to tear these wounds right open again. “Well, in the changing room I heard Taylor and Carmen talking. They didn’t know I was there, and Taylor brought up our relationship.”
The crease in his brow deepens. “What did she say?”
Another shaky sniffle. “Basically, that I’m not like the other women in your family. I don’t belong here. And that’s because…” I bite my lip. “I’m not good enough for you.”
I leave out the other rude comments because that will onlymake Brendan want to burn this place down. His face already looks murderous.
“Part of me wonders if she’s…” I swallow. “…not wrong. I don’t fit into your world. I work in a coffee shop. My dad is sick and we’re drowning in medical bills. Even if I work eighty hours a week, I still can’t make ends meet.”
“Scarlett.” His voice sounds like he wants to punch his fist through the wall.
I put my hands on his arms. “No, let me finish.” I let out a sob, the waterworks starting all over again. “I’ve been pretending this whole week that I belong here. That I fit in with your family and that this thing—” I motion between us. “—is real. But it’s not. After the wedding, we go back to our lives. You go back to being Coach Marco, and I go back to being the woman you order coffee from. What we’re pretending to be is just an act—we put on a good performance, but that doesn’t mean it could actually work.”
His eyes narrow. “You think this is an act?” His voice is too quiet.
“Why wouldn’t I?” I say with a bitter laugh. “We made a deal. An arrangement between friends—I help you through your sister’s wedding, you help me get the vendor contract. That’s all this is.A contract.I started to think it was more than that, and I’m the one who broke the rules.”
“What rules?”
“You told me at the beginning that you wanted someone who could only be your friend. And I thought I could honor our agreement.” I dip my head, the shame swirling inside me. “But I could never just be friends with you, Brendan Marco. Try as I might, I fail every time.”
His eyes hold mine for an excruciating moment. “Is that really what you think?” Heated emotion radiates off him, mixing with the steam from the water and making this hot tub feel like it’s boiling me alive. “You think I only wanted to be your friend.” The disappointment in his voice is palpable.
“We’re pretending to be a couple,” I say, my voice unsteady. “That’s the whole point.”
“Then let me be very clear.” Both hands rise to cup my face, his thumbs brushing tears from my cheeks as he tips his face to mine. “I haveneverwanted to be your friend.”
I frown, my stomach sinking to my feet. “You don’t?”
“No,” he says, dead serious. “Because ever since I met you—” He sucks in a breath. “I’ve wanted to be much more than your friend, Scarlett.”
I search his gaze. “What do you mean—more than?”
“You don’t know whatmore than a friendmeans?” he teases, his lips twitching.
“I know what it means. I just don’t know that I believe you.”
“Scarlett, it means I don’t want anyone else.” His hands slip to my shoulders, then slide down my arms. “I want to be the one you fall in love with. The one who makes your face light up when you come home at night. Who gets to massage your feet and cook you dinner and admire your heart pajamas.” His fingers find mine and he pulls my hand to his mouth and presses a kiss to it. “I want to be the man who not only kisses you better than anyone else—” He presses a kiss to my other hand slowly. “—but is theonlyone kissing you.”
I close my eyes, not fully trusting this.He wants me.Every emotion is running wild through my body like a hurricane. “Let me get this straight.” I open my eyes and look up at him. “After all this time, you want to be mine?”
He lets out a laugh at my confusion. “Yes, I’ve just been too afraid to admit it to you until now. Afraid your brother would hate me, and that you would too, after waiting this long.” One hand finds my face and he cups it gently. “This whole plan to pretend with you—was never pretend for me.”
I stare at him, my eyes filling with tears, but for a different reason now. My damp hair is plastered to my neck, while his curls around the nape of his neck. Droplets of water glisten on his shoulders as billows of steam cloud around us.
“I heard what Taylor said. I don’t belong with you.”